tiny hummingbird-like robot

[Admin]

AeroVironment has recently received a DARPA phase II grant of $2.1 million USD to continue work on their humming-bird like nano-AUV. I'm always amused at how the US military spends millions every year on projects like these, yet you can buy ornithopter toys at any Walmart starting at $30 . . .

Anyway, the video is impressive none-the-less.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cov7-XWUa18

[wil.hamilton]

i dont think your walmart toy has quite the control these are displaying

just wait, robotic hummingbirds with spy cams... big brother is watching....

could be interesting to see robotic humming birds used for pollination purposes.

[SmAsH]

i somehow think the funding that the us military grants for the robotics division is a bit overkill....
but at least its furthering research into robotics eh?

[Admin]

Ok to be fair, the funding also pays for science research.

The toys 'just work', while the research advances and improves the technology. And $2.1 million is just enough for 6 people to work on it for 4 years.

That video doesn't really show how reliable the design was . . . the clips were fairly short . . .

[paulstreats]

also notice the clear plastic tarpaulin that was surrounding the set. There is obviously no autonomy haening to protect it from slight draughts and winds...

[Razor Concepts]

But.. it is a lot more exciting and gets more publicity than a 40-page research report 

[offy]

also notice the clear plastic tarpaulin that was surrounding the set. There is obviously no autonomy haening to protect it from slight draughts and winds...

And you notice he is very careful on his movements when he lets it go. I also wonder if it can gain flight from the ground up. He always just let go of it in air.

[gaurav.p]

gr8 funding +gr8 brains=gr8 project
:p

gaurav

[SmAsH]

also notice the clear plastic tarpaulin that was surrounding the set. There is obviously no autonomy haening to protect it from slight draughts and winds...

And you notice he is very careful on his movements when he lets it go. I also wonder if it can gain flight from the ground up. He always just let go of it in air.

yeah, it looks like an extremely delicate piece of machinery, if it dropped onto the ground it would most likely break... i dont think it can take off on its own yet, not stably anyway

[parallax]

I came across something entirely by accident the other day and I thought it might be of interest to anyone checking out this thread...

http://www.ornithopter.org/
^A website dedicated to building ornithopters (mostly RC models)

and...

http://www.ornithopter.org/video/toy.mpg
^A video of an ornithopter made by the site admin which has rather realistic bird-like flight.

Obviously none of these are robots, but it might inspire someone here to use the flight characteristics of these machines to build an autonomous robotic ornithopter. I would love to see that- maybe I will do it myself when I have enough experience 

[paulstreats]

i dont think it can take off on its own yet, not stably anyway

Since it never gains any flight, meaning that its always heading on a downward trajectory kind of says that it could Never take of itself just yet let alone keep active flight going.

Though its quite disappointing, Remember that its fledgling programmes like this that eventually produce new technologies...

[WhomBom]

It's pretty early in the morning for me now, but in the end of the video it does seem tot take of on it's own...
Great project, just to bad it's being used for army purposes 

[SmAsH]

but in the end of the video it does seem tot take of on it's own...

yup, we missed that one